Freeland makes the most of his return in strong outing

DENVER -- Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland made the most of his second chance to start 2024 on Sunday afternoon.

Starting in a Major League game for the first time in 10 weeks, Freeland went six scoreless innings and limited the Nationals to one hit. However, Washington scored twice in the ninth inning for a 2-1 victory, leaving those on the Rockies’ side of Coors Field nodding toward the big picture rather than celebrating.

Before his left elbow strain sidelined him, Freeland had a 13.21 ERA through four starts, which started with awful outings at Arizona on Opening Day and at Wrigley in lousy weather. He reduced his ERA by nearly four runs by striking out four and forcing seven groundouts on Sunday.

“This was very nice to get back to the form of how I believe I should pitch every outing,” he said.

Freeland struck out CJ Abrams to start the game but had a slight scare tumbling while reaching for a grounder in the first. But second baseman Alan Trejo, who fielded that one, helped Freeland to his feet. Freeland then carried the Rockies for the rest of his outing.

Part of Freeland’s smoothness came because of an immediate meshing with rookie catcher Hunter Goodman, who was in Triple-A when Freeland was injured.

“I think I shook him once -- he and I were on the same page,” Freeland said.

Arguably, Freeland finished too strong. Working under a pitch limitation, he exhausted it while fanning three in the sixth. Jacob Young reached on an infield single and found himself at third via a Ryan McMahon throwing error with one out in the frame, but Freeland struck out Abrams and Lane Thomas.

“His two-seamer was really good," Abrams said.

"His slider was pretty good today,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez added. “He kept us off balance all day. But we kept trying to grind.”

Freeland finished with 69 pitches, all but 20 for strikes.

“He had four innings in [Triple-A] Albuquerque [during his last rehab start], and he emptied the tank during the sixth,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “There was no need to push him in the first start back.”

The Rockies (27-51) hope the current chapter leads somewhere. If that happens, Freeland’s start on Sunday will be seen as foreshadowing.

“It’s a very promising future,” said Freeland, whose five-year, $64.5 million contract runs through 2026 with a vesting option for 2027. “We still got a lot of baseball to play in the season, so we can’t just shut the door on the season. There are lots of games left for guys to play, grow as baseball players and learn their role with us as a team.”

The Rockies’ attempt to build a homegrown rotation has been star-crossed.

Freeland, Germán Márquez and Antonio Senzatela were part of a rotation that pitched the team to the postseason in 2017 and 2018, and the club signed them to multi-year contracts, only to see all go through slumps and injuries. Last season Márquez and Senzatela underwent Tommy John right elbow surgeries. Even worse, four pitching prospects became Tommy John surgery patients -- McCade Brown, Jordy Vargas (the Rockies’ No. 17 prospect), Jackson Cox (No. 25) and Gabriel Hughes (No. 15).

But Márquez could return from his right elbow Tommy John surgery rehab sometime around the All-Star break, and Senzatela is slowly building to a late-season return. While it’s not expected that two gems from last year’s Draft -- righty Chase Dollander (MLB Pipeline No. 40/Rockies No. 4) and lefty Sean Sullivan (No. 13), both at High-A Spokane -- will appear this season, lefty Carson Palmquist (No. 14) is 4-2 with a 2.97 ERA at Double-A Hartford and being discussed for a Major League debut before the season ends.

“We’re presently under construction,” Black said. “We’re getting a lot of young guys at-bats [like Michael Toglia, who powered a 462-foot homer in the second inning] and we’re seeing some other guys come into the fold. There could be some younger pitching coming at some point.

“Guys are learning. That’s the most important thing moving forward in our season.”

At 31, Freeland hasn’t stopped his pitching education. Freeland is back, trying to match the performances of Cal Quantrill and Austin Gomber -- the most consistent performers in the current rotation.

“Thankfully, I was able to fine-tune what I needed to over the past few months, figure things out and have a really good outing,” Freeland said.